


Still A Chance

by eeveev



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fix-It, Forgiveness, Gen, alternative Crimson Flower route, let Dimitri and El be siblings again i beg you
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-18
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:35:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25363963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eeveev/pseuds/eeveev
Summary: In which Edelgard spares Dimitri’s life...
Relationships: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd & Edelgard von Hresvelg
Comments: 6
Kudos: 40





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sure we all need some healing after having to kill so many beloved characters in every route of 3H, so what if everything turned out okay? What if Edelgard and Dimitri could be siblings again?
> 
> Rated T for heavy/heavier themes. Nothing outside of the realm of the game itself.

Edelgard raised Aymr to the sky. “Farewell, King of Delusion,” she said. Rain poured down upon Dimitri, who glared up at her with a snarl. He looked so... cruel. So broken. What had happened to him?

“If only we were born in a time of peace, you might have lived a joyful life as a benevolent ruler.” The thought tore at her heart. What she wouldn’t give...

Useless. Such thoughts were useless now. They had done too much, hurt too many people. The paths they had chosen were bloody ones, and they were too far down them to turn back.

Dimitri coughed up blood, though his gaze never broke from hers. “To the fires of eternity with you... El…”

She froze. 

_El._

Aymr fell to the ground, splashing up mud that mixed with the blood on Dimitri’s face. 

_El._

How did he... 

Memories, lost in the haze of her youth, flickered through Edelgard’s mind. Dancing. A dagger. A wish for her to carve her own path. 

_He_ had been that boy in the Kingdom. Dimitri.

Edelgard dropped to her knees and came face-to-face with Dimitri. He was too close to death to hurt her now, so she searched his face, his eyes, _anything_ , for a sign that he was still there. For a glimmer of the boy she had loved.

He had cared for her once, that much was true. Despite herself, she found she cared for him still. Could they be like that again?

_He had called her El._

Edelgard leaned forward.

She heard Hubert protest from a few feet away. “Lady Edelgard, what are you--”

El wrapped her arms around Dimitri.

“What--” he started.

“I… I’m sorry, Dimitri,” she said. “I didn’t want it to be this way. I’m sorry.” He was trembling. Or maybe she was. It didn’t really matter. 

Frigid rain poured down upon them as Edelgard held Dimitri, and the steely facade she had spent so much of her life crafting cracked. After five long years of war and bloodshed, Edelgard von Hresvelg cried. 

She cried for the lives she couldn’t save, for the ones who were sacrificed in her name. She cried for the hope of restoring a friendship long since fractured. 

“Edelgard…” Dimitri croaked before going limp in her arms. 

Edelgard pulled away. “Professor!” she called. Byleth nodded and rushed over, white magic already swirling around their hand. “Hubert, get Linhardt and Professor Manuela!” 

Edelgard turned Dimitri over, cradling his head in her lap while Byleth began the healing process. As white magic flowed from their hands into Dimitri’s body, his face grew a shade warmer. His injuries were such that he was lucky to even be alive. With any more luck—and with the skills of Linhardt and Manuela—he might make it. 

Edelgard was never one for prayers, but in this moment, she found herself praying to _something_ that they could save Dimitri. 

Dimitri awoke in darkness. 

Whispers. Shuffling feet.

He tried to move, but everything hurt. He shouldn’t be alive. That much was obvious.

He blinked until his eyes adjusted to the dim light. He was in a cell. The walls and floor were stone, but the bed he lay in was soft. He had pillows and blankets. There was a chair at his bedside.

The click of boots echoed down the hallway, and they stopped right outside his cell. Dimitri caught a flash of red in his periphery. He turned away.

“You’re awake,” Edelgard said.

Dimitri only grunted in response.

“I wanted to talk, if you don’t mind.”

Silence. 

Dimitri heard Edelgard sigh and begin to walk away. 

“Why didn’t you kill me?” he said. 

A pause. And then a breath. 

“I believe that you have answers that I seek,” Edelgard said. “And perhaps I can grant you answers in return.”

Dimitri rolled over onto his feet, and glared up at Edelgard. She wore her red dress, but her hair was tied into a long ponytail at the nape of her neck, rather than up in that ridiculous horned headdress. Her face was immovable as stone. Goddess above, did that woman feel anything?

“Why would I tell you anything?” he snarled. “Why, after all the innocent lives taken in your name, would I offer you answers?”

“Because you’ve lost, Dimitri,” she said. “And because--”

“I’ve lost?” Dimitri laughed. “Has this all just been a game to you, Edelgard? Killing and conquering Fódlan, and for what? To say that you won? That you’ve bested me?” His bitter laughter subsided, and he heard Glenn’s voice cut through the quiet.

_Avenge me._

Dimitri blinked, and his father stood behind Edelgard, his face as tortured as the day he was murdered.

_Save me._

“Do the people you’ve slaughtered mean nothing to you?” Dimitri whispered.

He thought he saw Edelgard’s face… soften. For a moment, her stoic front faltered.

“I will not pretend that my path is pure,” Edelgard said, “or that my hands are not stained with blood. Too many have died. But their lives are not nothing to me.” Her eyes flashed with emotion. “I and those I love have suffered at the hands of the Church and Those Who Slither in the Dark, and millions more would have met a similar fate if I did not do something. If I had known a better path, I would have followed it. But this is the path I have chosen. I will not allow it to be in vain.”

She turned towards the exit. “Rest,” she said, inscrutable once more. “I will return again tomorrow. Goodbye, Dimitri.”

Dimitri was left to stare at his father. His face was contorted in such anguish, his pain as acute as Dimitri’s own. All alone, the voices grew louder, more insistent. She was there, and he let her go. He laid back down on the bed.

He didn’t bother trying to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Edelgard doubts herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a shorter one this time. There were actually supposed to be two sections, but I was struggling with the second one, which delayed the release. So just the first one! Enjoy!

“Your Majesty, I must reiterate the foolishness of this idea,” Hubert said.

Edelgard knelt down beside her bed. She looked at Hubert with one eyebrow raised. “Are you going to try to stop me?”

He exhaled sharply. “No, but--”

“Good.”

“ _ But _ I ask that you allow me to accompany you this time,” he said. “You know as well as I do that even behind bars, Dimitri is dangerous.”

“I’m more than capable of protecting myself, Hubert,” Edelgard said, reaching underneath her bed to pull out a large wooden trunk. “You know that.”

“I do,” he said. “Under normal circumstances. But I find myself questioning your judgement in this regard.” Hubert strode across the room and knelt before her. “Edelgard. That man has spent the last five years calling for your head. What makes you think that he would change, now, of all times? Why should his fate matter to you?”

Edelgard flicked open the latches on her trunk. Inside were items she had held onto over the years. Her old Officer’s Academy uniform, sketches and paintings she was too embarrassed to look at now, momentos from friends.

And this.

A dagger.

Edelgard lifted it out from its resting place. Dust had collected in the crevices of the hilt’s engravings, and she wiped it away with her gloved hand. 

“A dagger?” Hubert said. “Do you intend to kill him?”

Edelgard eyed him sideways. “No. This… this was given to me when I was in the Kingdom. Before…” Her fingers picked idly at her collar.

“Ah, I see,” Hubert said. A quiet understanding filled the air between them.

Edelgard’s eyes did not move from the dagger. “Dimitri and I… We were friends once. I know it’s foolish to hope that after everything we’ve done, we could be friends again, but… I’m tired of ending things, Hubert.” She pressed her forehead against his shoulder. “Am I wrong for wanting to save him?”

“No,” he sighed. “I think such compassion exemplifies the kind of emperor you are.”

There was a knock at the door.

“Come in,” Edelgard said, standing. 

One of Dimitri’s nurses poked her head in. “Your Majesty,” she said. 

“Is it time?”

The nurse nodded.

“Be safe,” Hubert said. 

Edelgard looked over her shoulder as she passed through the doorway, and smiled. “You know I will.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do you ever think about how, for most of their lives, Edelgard and Hubert only had each other to rely on? Because I do.
> 
> Anyway, Hubert and Edelgard's friendship is very important to me.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading the first chapter! I hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
